This article is intended to contribute to the discussion about the possibilities for supporting work-life balance. It has two basic objectives. The fi rst is to assess the dependence of work-life balance on economic conditions and the character of the given welfare/family regime. The second is to evaluate how much work-life balance is infl uenced by private-life determinants and how much by external, that is, structural and institutional, factors. The analysis is based on a comparison of the situation in the Czech Republic with selected countries. Success at achieving a work-life balance is examined both from a subjective perspective and in relation to the three basic social goals it is intended to facilitate: women's employment, people's reproductive plans, and gender equality. An international comparison shows that while the forms and success of harmonising family and professional roles in countries with different external factors have specifi c national features, people's subjective assessments of their ability to combine these two spheres of activity vary little among economically active partners. The reason for this appears to be that to some extent people adapt (more or less voluntarily) their harmonisation strategies to the external conditions in individual countries. Also, these strategies are infl uenced by national socio-cultural specifi cs and differences in the degree of acceptance of gender inequalities.
This paper is based on the results of the research project "The Status of Women and Men in the Czech Republic" from 1998. It was inspired by the need to obtain information on the circumstances of enforcement of EU legislation on equal opportunities in the Czech Republic in connection with the Czech Republic's application for EU membership. The project aimed to investigate the public perception and consciousness of equal opportunities. Therefore, it deals with the main issues of the EU directives and recommendations: equal pay, equal treatment as regards access to employment, promotion and vocational training, legal knowledge concerning employment and so on. Reconciling family and working life is the crucial problem in the Czech Republic, as in other countries. It can be understood as a result of both modernisation and the special national situation that has resulted from the social and economic transition. The paper compares conditions of women's employment with their professional expectations and satisfaction. It shows the social determination of these, and some stereotypes in understanding men's and women's roles. These facts influence women's position on the labour market in various aspects.
Changes in the Financial Instruments of Family Policy in 2006-2015 and their Potential to Change Fertility BehaviourThe aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the infl uence of family policy on family behaviour. The paper analyses the impact of parametric and system changes introduced in family and social benefi ts and tax reliefs in 2006-2015 on the income level of families with diff erent demographic characteristics, and evaluates the potential of those changes to infl uence reproductive and partnership behaviour. The analytical part takes selected instruments of fi nancial support to the family and shows the size of the fi nancial provision families can claim depending on their previous earned income, to what extent that income is being compensated (family benefi ts), and how the net income is infl uenced (tax reliefs). Eff ects of the studied changes vary for diff erent income categories and are more pronounced in the case of low-income families. This diff erentiation corresponds to the fertility by mother's education, which is tightly linked to the family's income. The analysis has shown that certain instruments have the potential to infl uence family behaviour, however in diverse ways.
The article focuses on the use of childcare for preschool-age children in 13 European countries with different models of maternal employment. Employing a comparative approach it relates care arrangements to family policy measures. Childcare policies and practices in post-communist countries (the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) are compared in a wider European context and specifically to various countries representing the principal types of welfare state and family policy strategies in Europe (the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden). The article focuses on parental leave schemes, parental employment, and formal childcare and takes into account informal childcare, which in many countries is crucial to achieving a work-life balance. The authors' findings reveal that the use of informal childcare is not directly related to either the length of paid parental leave or maternal employment. Informal childcare, which in most cases is provided by grandparents, is used on a weekly basis for at least thirty per cent of preschool-age children in all the post-communist countries studied except Bulgaria. However, similarly high levels of informal childcare were also found in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Austria. Gendered moral rationalities based on cultural norms play an important role in division of childcare in each European state.
Nástroje finanční podpory si i v dnešním pojetí rodinné politiky uchovávají svoji stěžejní roli, která vzrůstá v současnosti, kdy komplikovanější ekonomické podmínky zasahují stále více rodin. Cílem stati je porovnat národní systémy rodinných dávek v kontextu modelů rodinné politiky. Národní modely jsou v současnosti spíše mixem klasických "ideálních typů" s větší nebo menší dominancí původních rysů a dávkové systémy se liší zejména v detailech nastavení, míře štědrosti a cílenosti a struktuře forem finanční podpory. Peněžní dávky jsou v polovině sledovaných zemí stěžejní součástí celkové finanční podpory rodin. Ve Švédsku a Španělsku se na celkových výdajích podílí především podpora služeb pro rodiny. Dávkově štědré státy mívají nejen velkorysé základní dávky, ale i variabilní dávkový systém zohledňující různé typy rodin a pestrost situací, v nichž je žádoucí rodiny s dětmi finančně podporovat. Role dávek při naplňování dvou vybraných cílů rodinné politiky -podpory porodnosti a eliminace chudoby dětí -není podle provedených komparací jednoznačná. ukazatelé plodnosti i chudoby dětí jsou nejpříznivější v zemích, které v rodinné politice uplatňují komplexní přístup a propojení přímých i nepřímých nástrojů. Analýza potvrdila nutnost systémové propojenosti peněžních dávek s dalšími nástroji rodinné politiky, má-li dávkový systém plnit své role. Klíčová slova systém rodinných dávek, modely rodinné politiky, přídavky na děti, daňové úlevy 2022 | ROČNÍK ii | ČÍSLO 2 64Veřejná spráVa a sociální politika
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